


Get a Room (Just Not Mine)

by orphan_account



Series: snktober 2020 [10]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Crack Treated Seriously, Implied Sexual Content, Long-Distance Relationship, M/M, Misunderstandings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-27
Updated: 2020-10-27
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:02:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,907
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27232450
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: They didn’t have much in common, as it seemed. Armin was comfortably dating someone, while Jean was forced to remain swiping right on dating apps and keeping his right hand moisturized.--snktober day twenty-six: school au
Relationships: Armin Arlert/Eren Yeager
Series: snktober 2020 [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1946416
Comments: 12
Kudos: 142
Collections: SNKTOBER Month 2020





	Get a Room (Just Not Mine)

**Author's Note:**

> THERE IS ART INSPIRED BY THIS FIC IMMA CRY!!!!!!! PLEASE CHECK IT OUT (AFTER YOU READ THE FIC)  
> jean snooping: https://twitter.com/himeka008/status/1321483578153160704?s=20  
> reunion: https://twitter.com/kurpikass/status/1321330092446986241?s=20

Armin Arlert, for all intents and purposes, was somewhat of a mysterious guy.

Jean wasn’t sure what to make of his roommate. Armin was extremely nice; he had let Jean choose which side of the room and which desk he had wanted first, and the first few days after move-in they had gotten dinner together in the dining halls. They tried to make it a point to get dinner together once a week.

Despite those dinners and the scattered conversations that they had had throughout the year, though, Jean still barely knew anything about him. 

They didn’t have much in common, as it seemed. Armin was an English major with a minor in oceanic sciences, while Jean was a political science major with a concentration in comparative politics; Armin was definitely not a morning person, while Jean actually enjoyed waking up before noon; and Armin was comfortably dating someone, while Jean was forced to remain swiping right on dating apps and keeping his right hand moisturized.

Jean did not know, sadly, what Armin’s partner looked like, though he had a terrifying mental image of her based on the little tidbits of description Armin had offhandedly dropped here and there. 

Really, the only reason Jean knew that Armin was dating someone was because he had asked; Armin was pretty private and didn’t talk about his life much outside of schoolwork. 

If Jean didn’t see Armin watch the occasional show on Netflix, he would’ve thought his roommate was a robot.

At their roommate dinner just a few days back, Jean had been complaining about the horrors of online dating over their somewhat passable Italian food.

“I hate having to be the one to message first,” Jean said, sighing and putting down his phone face-down. He’d had enough of Tinder for one night. 

Armin nodded sympathetically, twirling some pasta around his fork. “Outdated gender norms, definitely.”

“Don’t you ever get tired of it?” Jean asked, picking at his penne. For a first-rate research institution, their food was certainly not the best.

Armin’s eyebrows rose, and he opened his mouth to speak when someone jostled their table getting up to bring their tray to the dump. It took a few moments to receive hasty, frantic apologies and another few moments to readjust their table before he continued.

Rubbing his hands together sheepishly, he said, “Ah, well, I’ve never had to use a dating app, so I’m sorry to say I can’t relate.”

Jean’s mouth fell open, and he nearly knocked over his cup of soda with his confused gesturing. “What? How do you find dates then?” He paused, furrowing his brows. “Or do you not want to date anyone? That’s totally fine too.”

A hint of pink dusted the tops of Armin’s cheeks. “Oh, I’m dating someone who goes to college on the East Coast. We’ve known each other since elementary school.”

This was definitely news to Jean. He had never heard Armin picking up any video calls in the dorm room, and privately he thought it was kind of unfair that Armin had met his soulmate in elementary school of all places. All Jean got out of that public schooling stint was the ability to color. “What’s your partner’s name? Do you talk to them a lot?”

“Oh! Eren,” Armin replied. “We do talk on the phone a lot, but I usually go outside so I don’t bother you.”

Huh. Erin. That was a girl’s name, right?

Jean didn’t think it was necessary to ask.

“It’s okay if you talk in the room. I don’t mind,” Jean said, finishing up the last of his meal and stacking his plates. “Do you wanna head back?”

And that was the last they spoke of Armin’s girlfriend. 

Or so he thought.

The cool air of early winter filtered through their slightly opened window, the soft light of the moon drowned out by the desolate buzzing glow of the dorm room’s overhead lights. Jean and Armin were both at their desks studying for their finals the next week, a testament to their first semesters of university coming to a close. 

Armin had been in their room the entirety of dead week, leaving only to eat meals and use the restroom. It was ironically the most time the roommates had spent together in the same vicinity, but there was little conversation besides letting each other know they were planning to go to sleep. 

On that night, Jean was contemplating just why he had chosen to take three of his major’s prerequisite courses in his first semester. Most other first years he knew were taking easy GE classes; why did he have to try and be a smart-ass?

Soft calls of his name distracted him from the blurring words of Robert Dahl. Jean took out his earbuds and turned around to see Armin turned around his chair and fiddling with his hands.

“Do you mind if Eren stays over for a few days next week?” Armin asked, running a hand through his bangs. “He’s coming to visit before we both head back to our hometown for break.”

Jean shrugged, reaching his arms toward the ceiling to stretch. “Sure, she can stay if she’s quiet when I need to study. I don’t mind.” Jean hadn’t brought back any dates to the room (though he had considered it with a freckled boy named Marco, a feisty red-head named Floch, and a petite girl named Mina), but it seemed only fair that the roommate with the established relationship would bring someone back first.

Armin blinked, rubbed his eyes, and stared down at his meticulously highlighted notes for several moments. 

Jean thought he might’ve broken the poor boy. Did Armin not expect him to say yes?

“Thanks,” Armin said after some time had passed, offering a small smile. “I’ll make sure Eren stays quiet. We probably won’t be in the room too much, anyway, because we need to go sightseeing.”

Jean flashed a quick thumbs up and turned back to his readings. There was something important nagging at his mind, like another rule he had to make sure Armin knew… 

“Oh!”

Armin’s shoulders jumped and he whipped around to stare at Jean, clearly startled by his roommate’s sudden outburst. 

With the cockiest, most shit-eating grin, Jean pointed an accusing finger at his roommate and snickered. “You can’t sexile me. Not cool during finals week.”

Sputtering, a bright cherry red spread rapidly up Armin’s neck, across his face, and to his ears. 

Jean laughed, thinking briefly that it was definitely strange to see a tomato with a mop of blond hair.

\--

However, as the fated day of arrival (as he had taken to calling it in his head) drew nearer and nearer, Jean grew more agitated. Sure, he had his finals to worry about, but he also didn’t want to meet Armin’s girlfriend without knowing at least something more than her name.

Frustration wracked Jean’s head, adding to his swirling thoughts about constitutional amendments and old men in white wigs. Armin had basically no social media presence; he had a Facebook and Instagram, sure, but both profiles had a bare minimum profile pic and absolutely no posts. 

Armin was also, sadly, very minimal with his decorating. While Armin’s side of the room had a few beautiful, glossy prints of oceanic photography tacked up, there was little in the way of photographs with actual people on them. 

Jean had polaroids galore of his high school friends strung up, but the most Armin had was a 5 x 7 photo of him with two other people framed and hung up above his desk.

One of those two people had to be Armin’s significant other.

When Armin was out eating lunch, Jean crept closer to his desk and leaned in to examine the photograph closely. He felt a bit bad doing it, but he figured it wasn’t an invasion of privacy; it was, after all, displayed clearly out in the open space of their shared room.

All three of the people featured in the photo were probably about high school aged. Armin was off to the right in the photo, his glasses—a rectangular frame that he had likely traded for round before heading to college—slightly askew as a tan arm hung off his shoulders. Instead of looking at the camera, Armin was looking at the owner of said tanned arm, a smiling boy with green eyes and shaggy brown hair, with a brilliant grin. 

The sight of the boy caused annoyance to bubble in Jean’s chest; for some reason, his face just looked like the type of person Jean would fight on the street. He quickly moved on to the rest of the photo.

On the other side of the boy was a beautiful dark-haired girl with dark eyes, pale skin, and a soft smile, her chin pressed against the boy in the middle’s shoulder and her hand clasped in Armin’s in front. 

Jean silently fist pumped. Obviously the girl holding Armin’s hand was his girlfriend. 

It was a bit weird that she wasn’t right next to Armin, but Jean figured that the other guy was a persistent third wheel or something.

Satisfied with his sleuthing, Jean returned to his desk to continue his studying.

\--

Even though Jean had told Armin it was okay to take calls in the room, the first time Armin did so was a day before Erin was supposed to arrive.

Jean didn’t want to look nosy, and Armin didn’t invite him to say hi to Erin, so he kept his eyes trained on the laptop screen that displayed his shitty excuse of a conclusion paragraph.

“I can’t believe you almost got into a fight with your professor,” Armin said, more fondness in his voice than Jean thought possible. “I know you feel really strongly about livestock policy, but why don’t you just write an angry letter to the governor instead?”

Jean quickly clamped a hand over his mouth to stifle his snort. What kind of person would try to fight their professor?

With Armin’s personality, Jean had figured that his girlfriend would’ve been similar—or at least, not as angry as it appeared she was.

Armin and his boo talked for a little while longer about mundane things that Jean didn’t really understand; they were probably catching up on old high school friends and their shenanigans. 

Suddenly, Armin fell quiet, and Jean had to strain his ears to listen.

“I love you too,” Armin said, almost too softly for Jean to catch.

Guilt for eavesdropping flooding his veins, Jean got the distinct feeling that he was intruding on something very personal; his roommate’s love life wasn’t a romantic comedy for him to enjoy…probably. 

He had at least some claim to it though, right? Since he was in the same room and all.

Jean turned his music back to its highest setting and tried his best to ignore how he was third-wheeling in his own room.

\--

Jean was just returning from grabbing a sandwich when he noticed a dark, shadowy figure standing in front of his door.

He briefly thought he had inhaled one too many Redbulls and was hallucinating the Grim Reaper until he remembered that he had actually gotten a robust seven hours of sleep.

Chills ran down his spine and he hesitated a few feet away, sizing up and trying to take in as much information about the stranger as he could. 

The figure turned out to be a man, probably an inch or so shorter than he was, with unshaven stubble and long brown hair down to his shoulders. Though the man was wearing a hoodie, he looked rather muscular just from the way the fabric clung to his biceps and shoulders.

If Jean hadn’t been so thoroughly terrified, he might’ve found the man attractive. 

As it were, though, it took a few moments for Jean to square his shoulders and draw himself up to his full height, just so he had enough confidence to approach the stranger. 

“Excuse me, but I think you’ve got the wrong dorm,” Jean said, forcing his voice to be as gravelly and deep as it would go. 

The man turned to look at Jean, raising an eyebrow up, almost as if he were inviting Jean to a brawl. “I’m here for Armin.”

Oh shit. Of course the weird, creepy man was there for Armin. It was always the short and tiny types that had bullies coming after them.

“I’m afraid you’ve definitely got the wrong dorm,” Jean repeated, hoping he didn’t need to go and call campus security or something. Armin hadn’t ever attracted stalkers before, but Jean knew that any boy with the right mix of ethereal and nerdy would probably gather a few weirdos.

The man’s glare was so intense that Jean feared he might pull out a knife and start stabbing at any moment. “Armin definitely said—”

“Eren!”

The two men whipped their heads around to see Armin, panting softly and hair askew as if he had just finished a run, standing at the end of the hallway.

Armin broke into a sprint and launched himself at the man, and Jean thought that he might’ve been winding up for a roundhouse punch.

Instead, though, the strange man caught Armin mid-jump, winding his arms around Armin’s middle and pulling him close. Armin hooked his legs around the man’s hips, gripped the sides of the man’s face with his hands, and latched their lips together with such sheer passion and longing that it put every reunion scene in the past century’s array of romcom films to shame.

It was like watching a car crash, a burning building, a Subway employee drop your entire sandwich on the floor and pick it up to wrap and hand to you.

Jean couldn’t look away.

Surprise punching through his chest, he dropped all of his things on the floor and exclaimed, “I thought you were dating that girl in your picture!”

Armin and the man broke apart. The man, though he had let Armin down enough to set his feet on the ground, was still clutching onto Armin like a lifeline even while he turned to sneer, “What?”

Armin blinked rapidly several times, and Jean knew the cogs in his brain were whirring in full force. The endearing effect of his confused face was only slightly dampened by the growling guard dog personified draped over his form. 

“Oh! Do you mean Mikasa? Ah, she’s like a sister to me.” Armin patted the man’s arm. “This is Eren, my boyfriend. Sorry if I didn’t make that clear.”

“You thought he was dating Mikasa?” Eren pulled away from Armin just enough to look down at him with an exaggerated pout. “Armin...are you cheating on me?”

“Eren, just because I had a crush on her in third grade doesn't mean you have to do this every time,” Armin replied, sighing and resting his head against his boyfriend’s shoulder.

Eren pressed a soft kiss to the top of Armin’s hair and smoothed the stray locks down with his fingers. “And you had a crush on me first, right?” 

Armin huffed, scrunching up his nose, and Eren laughed and bent down to rub his nose against Armin’s. Cooing, Armin returned the gesture. 

Jean thought he was going to gag. Was there a trash can nearby? He definitely needed one.

“Oh, shit. This room is gayer than I thought.”

Both Eren and Armin stiffened, the previously affectionate comfort sapped from their postures. 

“Do you have a problem with that?” Armin asked, voice steely cold.

Jean realized that he hadn’t ever really talked to Armin about his dating life aside from his complaints about the horrors of messaging first. “No! No, I don’t. I just thought you were straight.”

The couple relaxed, and Jean mentally patted himself on the back. Another crisis averted. Another job well done for him.

Eren, having regained his confidence, barked out, “Hey, horseface. Stay out of the room, okay? Armin and I have to do some catching up.”

Jean nodded, the relief in his system clogging his thought processes. Of course Armin and his long-distance boyfriend had some catching up to do!

Armin had already started unlocking the door before Jean’s brain caught up with his ears.

“Wait, Armin, you promised!”

His roommate shot him a sheepish smile, his eyebrows drawn in an apology. “Sorry, Jean. I haven’t seen Eren in months.” Jean saw Eren’s hand creep down into Armin’s back pocket, eliciting a light giggle from the blond. “I promise we’ll be done in a few hours!”

After opening the door to their dorm, Armin and Eren stumbled inside, leaving Jean to rot outside in the harsh environment of the desolate, lonely hallway. 

It was very, very lonely. 

In other words, Jean was lonely. As in he had no one but himself. 

Because his roommate kicked him out, leaving him there to die. Alone.

(And painfully single. Fuck, did Armin really have to rub it in his face?)

A low groan filtered through the devastatingly thin door.

Jean suppressed the urge to yack, picked up his misshapen sandwich, and moved to the lounge to sulk in peace.

As he was settling on the couch and unwrapping his meal, a buzz from his phone interrupted his murderous thoughts; it was a Tinder notification.

Jean smirked and opened the message.

Armin may have been a great roommate, but Jean wasn’t above revenge.


End file.
